Thomas D. Seymour, Commentary on Homer's Iliad, Books I-III

[8] Vs. 8-52. The injured Chryses. The avenging Apollo. The scene opens in the 9th year of the war before Troy (2.295). During their siege of the city, the Greeks supported themselves by marauding expeditions. On one of these forays they captured Thebe (vs. 366 ff.) and brought away as part of the booty the daughter of Chryses, priest of Apollo (v. 370). She was assigned to Agamemnon, to be his slave, as his “γέρας”, prize of honor. See on vs. 124 f.

τίς τ̓ ἄρ: and who then? question from the standpoint of the hearer, suggested by v. 6. cf. ‘Who first seduced them to that foul revolt? — Th' infernal serpent’ Milton Par. Lost i. 33. Some god must have decreed the calamity; the Homeric theology recognized no blind chance.

ἔριδι ξυνέηκε: brought together in strife, cf. “θεῶν ἔριδι ξυνιόντων γ” 66 as the gods came together in strife, “θεοὺς ἔριδι ξυνελάσσαι γ” 134.

ξυνέηκε: for the augment, see § 25 h.

μάχεσθαι: sc. “ἐπέεσσιν”, cf. v. 304, 2.377 f. Inf. of result, where “ὥστε” might have been used in prose, cf. “μαντεύεσθαι” v. 107, “ἄγειν” v. 338, “ἀνάσσειν Β 108, ἐριζέμεναι Β” 214. Some of these examples may be taken as infs. of purpose, which cannot always be clearly separated from the inf. of result in Homer.